Injury Prevention in House Springs, MO. Whether you play a sport and are trying to get a shot at the next stage, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our certified House Springs, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to show you techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location nearest you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many House Springs, MO residents. We love activities such as playing sports, kayaking, or other physical activities. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle helps prevent chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, degenerative brain diseases, mental health issues, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed House Springs, MO physical therapists help you return to action and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention experts can help keep you active by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, have been prove to work and are customized for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in House Springs, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can keep up with your sport or hobby, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in House Springs, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Chronic injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as softball or basketball players and commonly reveal themselves with joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are injuries that happen because of a specific and sudden trauma. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, almost always occur spontaneously, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in House Springs, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can result in overemphasis for one muscle group, causing it to perform actions it cannot do safely. It can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher probability of injury. Injuries can be caused by inadequate muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Muscle imbalance can result in:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Coordination deficiency

Customized injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in House Springs, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body bending in unnatural ways, increasing your risk of injury. Problems in your nervous system, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:

• Joint mobility limitations
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor coordination
• Reduced balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in House Springs, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your doctor or any additional providers involved in your treatment, we’ll devise a personalized treatment plan been proven to work through research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who sit a lot. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can have postural dysfunction when lying down, driving, or in specific poses related to a given activity. Healthy posture refers to correct alignments when both static and moving in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the bones of the spine closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. Symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor positioning
• Joint mobility restrictions
• Poor muscle recruitment

By teaching you ideal posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility can be improved and maintained, and your spine is in its natural position.

How to Prevent Injury in House Springs, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything possible to reduce that risk. No one precaution is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your desired activity level:

• Take breaks — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will signal to your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
• Use the right equipment — Helmets, chin straps, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in many sports helps you avoid injuries like lacerations or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your House Springs, MO physician or physical therapist may recommend stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the force and torque of heavy activity. In your tailored injury prevention program with our experienced House Springs, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to be able to stay healthy in the activities you want to participate in.
• Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It increases your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to adjust to more pronounced positions.
  2. It increases blood flow, which carries nourishing blood to your soft tissue, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
  3. It improves your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is an important part of injury prevention.

  According to studies, sports like basketball that necessitate sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons compliant enough to incorporate and release the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before activities further helps prevent injuries.

• Use correct technique — In every sport, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you get be the best athlete you can be but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to reduce the risk of brain damage, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and educate you on how to improve it.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense workout, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that plays through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting your doctor, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the presence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules that were adopted to keep participants safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s always advisable to see a doctor before a new season or starting up a new physical activity. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in House Springs, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Older House Springs, MO Adults

Falls in senior citizens accounted for more than 3 million urgent care admissions and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that being physical active can go a long way in preventing falls. Other conditions that limit mobility like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints active. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, appropriate strength, balance, flexibility, and ideal posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in House Springs, MO include:

• Physical Therapy Clinic
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
• Sciatica Treatment
• Sports Medicine
• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy

House Springs, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in something you love doing causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same elation. The licensed House Springs, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Schedule an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to see what our House Springs, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.